Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1887-07-22
THE TAI, OF AQUA.

The beautiful tomb called the Tai Mahal
one of the sights Of Agra, India, once the
capital of the vanished empire of the grand
mogul, was built by the emperor Shah Jehan
to show his lasting love and to provide an
appropriate resting place for the fair body of
that wife whose graces of body and mind
were far above the average of her sex Lit
tie did he foresee that $50 years after his
death this monument to pure, sweet wom-
an would still remain the most beautiful
piece of architecture in the world.
The Tai garden is a third of a mile in
length by one-half that distance in breadth,
its lower part adjoining the Juinna river.
AT the river end is a rectangular court yard,
running down to the river wall for distance
of over $50 feet Built up in the middle of
this is n level terrace of white marble, raised
between 25 and 80 feet above the level of the
garden, square, with an edge of over 800 feet.
Rising from each corner of this square is "a
stately white marble tower, having neat bal
comics at various heights and delicate open
pavilion at the top.
! 1t took 10000 men seventeen years 10 build
this TAI, which is inlaid with stones from
nearly all parts Of the world, costing upward
of ten million American dollars.
The Tai itself is in tle center of the terrace
and takes up a space 1S6 feet square, with the
| four corners facing the towers cut off, SO as
to make four wide faces and four narrow
corners. Growing the middle of the flat
roof is a SNOW white dome very high and of
| perfect proportions, from which springs a
very long gilded spike, having a star and
crescent at its end Four smaller domes
surround this large one, and marble pillars
rise from each sharp edge which projects
from the roof.
! The panels of the walls and all the columns
are beautifully and delicately inlaid with
| mother of pearl, bloodstone, coral, jasper,
turquoise, lapis lazuli and other handsome
| stones, shaped to represent leaves and flowers.
This ornamentation is apportioned to all
parts of the resting place of the dead with
such judgment as To make one perfect whole.
A massive gateway of red sandstone forms
the entrance to the Tai garden. The gate
! way is inlaid with ornaments and with in
scriptions in marble. One Of the inscriptions
ends with an invitation to the pure i'll heart
to enter this garden of paradise
In the middle of an apartment, directly
under the main dome, is a many sided high
screen OF most deicately perforated marble,
with an upper molding Of inlaid mosaics
similar to those on the walls and columns. In
the middle Of the space inclosed by this screen
is u marble sarcophagus, inlaid all over, and
containing inscriptions to tue effect that it is
the last resting place of the exalted one of the
| palace" ami that God Alone is Powerful y
To one side of this is the tomb Of her lord
and lover, which, because he was man, is a
! little larger and higher
We are told that Shah Jehan intended to
build himself larger and more magnificent
tomb directly across the river, and to CON
meet the two by marble bridge, but there
is doubt of his ever having had any desire to
be laid away from his one love. If so, il
could only have been a matter of vanity
and "a kind fate stepped in and decreed that
he should sleep beside the wife whose virtues
he had immortalized.